High School is a dangerous thing
by MadClairvoyant
Summary: Be very careful what you wish for, Chihiro.
1. I wish, I wish, I wish

"My goodness! Chihiro, are you day dreaming again?" Katharina demanded of her friend. "Du bist verrückt!"

Chihiro sighed privately before turning over to look at her German friend. The girl was a blond, making her stand out instantly from the sea of brunettes at school. Her features were cold and hard, typical of their people, complete with the crystal blue eyes that were like emotionless glass beads. They were both friendless, and so perhaps it was so that they were good friends; Katharina was every bit as warm as her appearance suggested, and was utterly disgusted with the empty headed giggling most girls were prone to in this school. She was not exactly receptive of the advances of the boys in the school, because she had rightly guessed that most of them were merely attracted by her foreign good looks. Her father was a scientist who was assigned to a base here, so she had moved here from Germany the year Chihiro ha been inducted to this community. Needless to say, she did not quite like the people and had preferred to stay away. On the other hand, Chihiro, as her friend had commiserated earlier, was always staring into space with the blank look, which earned her the name of a lunatic when she first moved into this small town.

She had the sneaking suspicion that her friend had just snapped that she was crazy in her native language, but she could not be sure. Even after hanging out with her for so long, she still could not quite grasp what her friend was always muttering in German. However, just to be safe, Chihiro returned the favour; if there was one thing she learned from her stay at the bath house, it was to never let others think she was weak. "優しいリアル!" Rolling her eyes, (Chihiro had always been rather peeved that Katharina just had a way with languages), her friend snorted and told her, "You are really mature. But have you not been listening to what was saying? Or were you dreaming about a bath house again?" Chihiro snapped back in reply, "I should have never told you about it. Stop teasing me about it." Katharina observed her with that cool, calculating look, before stating clearly that she was obsessed with a certain river spirit, and smirking when she elicited the exact response she looked for. Chihiro privately thought that she was much like her father, and analysed everything she saw with a certain precision that would be used on a specimen.

As they walked home together, Katharina kept on ribbing her about it, and she parried well, generating some kind of highly interesting conversation about imaginary friends and a few screws loose.

Even so, she could not deny that she was pondering on her old friends' fate back at the bath house; how was Kamaji? Was Lin scrubbing the big tub again? Was Haku still slaving away, or had his name won him his freedom? How she missed them. She wished that she would see them again, especially her childhood savior, Haku. If only she could. Little did she know, she would get what she wanted like an idiot in an old wives' tale the next day.


	2. A dream come true, not

It was as it was every morning. She met Katharina at the junction of the streets where their houses were, and they headed towards another day at school. There would be three whole blocks of art to day, and they had vastly different reactions. Katharina, as earlier mentioned, loved anything scientific, and mathematical, which put her at odds with many things, especially art. As such, she was currently wallowing in misery, or as close to that as she was capable of. Therefore, she was muttering long strings of unintelligible curses in German, including exclamations of "Scheiße!" or "Verdammt!" as she trudged sullenly through. (Privately, Chihiro had always been rather amused when her elegant and sophisticated friend was reduced to this over something so trival.) Chihiro, on the other hand, was rather happy, because art was her favourite thing really, and once a week their aesthetic class would allow her to let her imagination run free. "Just wipe that smirk off your face, will you not." Katharina snapped in a heavily accented voice, her foul mood-induced bout of German likely messed up her pronunciation, which was all the more a better opportunity to tease her.

Soon, they were at the lockers in school, dragging out their books for the day, which was thankfully a very small amount because the bell rang. Quickly, Chihiro dashed to the aesthetic classroom, her shoes' heels clicking against the floor in a steady, detached rhythm. Katharina was ahead of her, her longer legs covering a far greater distance than Chihiro, which made the shorter girl grumble. As she wrenched the door handle open, she peaked inside, and sighed in relief that the sensei was not here yet, sparing her a scolding about being late. She plonked down on her seat, with Katharina behind her, and looked attentively at the front, pretending that they had been there for a very long time, and not that they just rushed in as the teacher walked through the front door.

"Good morning class." Her sharp, clipped voice travelled across the room. The class droned back a reply before settling down. Looking at the empty seat beside her, she wondered why the teacher never assigned anyone to seat there. But no matter; nothing could spoil her mood today, not even the resident frown on the teacher's face. She then called out, "Today, we have a new student joining us. I would appreciate of you made him feel welcome." The class then erupted into hissing, no doubt over what he was like. She could hear snatches of conversations, like "What is he like?" and "Oh my god!", and so forth. Chihiro could easily envision Katharina rolling her eyes already, at the sight of everyone working themselves into a mad frenzy when they had not even seen the boy in question.

Then he walked in, with the same balletic ease and haughty air she remembered he possessed, and she would have fainted.

"Good morning, my name is Nigihayami Kohaku Nushi, and I hope that you will take care of me."


	3. Not you again

His dark green hair was cropped to his shoulders as always; they hung neatly, stiff like a board. The pale face remained unchanged, perfect and emotionless, as usual. The pretty green eyes were larger than ever, burning with a strange sort of fire. Overall, they gave him the look of a particularly delicate porcelain doll to Chihiro, and his features made him look almost feminine. Of course, in this world, he had shed his usual apprentice uniform for a pair of black slacks and a crisp white shirt.

"Trust him to be formal even in a situation like this." Chihiro thought humorlessly. But belying his relaxed stance was his hunched shoulders, which, to the practiced eye (Chihiro), he was poised to strike. When he opened his lips to speak, Chihiro was suddenly struck by an image of him in the same position, on a rickety old bridge, shouting, "You shouldn't be here. Get out of here, now!" She half expected that to come out of his mouth. That would be hilarious. But no. All he did was to introduce himself, before looking at the teacher The sensei sighed, then pointed him to a seat next to Chihiro.

She could hardly believe her luck. "Sit next to Ogino then; she is best at art in her year, I am sure she can give you some pointers." She then waved a dismissive hand in his general direction before turning back to the pile of artworks she had in the desk. Kohaku padded silently over to her desk, and pulled out the chair, before sitting down. Chihiro resisted the urge to reach over and shake his shoulders. How dare he forget about her, when she moped over him for years! Feeling extremely indignant, she turned her head resolutely towards the front, ignoring the burning glares from around her.

She was not exactly popular, with her reputation for being a cuckoo cloudlander, so of course they were not very happy that the new (and exceedingly handsome) boy was assigned to sit next to her. She could feel the boy, Kohaku (she would not call him her Haku, even if they had the same name and look), boring holes into her with his eyes. He seemed to be regarding her with a certain cautious air, as if observing a specimen that was not to be disturbed (it annoyed her immensely that it was the same way Katharina regarded her when she teased her about her 'fairytales').

Fortunately, before either was forced to break the awkward silence, the teacher spoke, "Alright, class. I am going to return last week's work to you. I have asked each of you to draw any thing that is related to myths. And I must say that Ogino-san has done a great job once again. Though I must ask, why did you choose to include the boy? The dragon is beautifully done, and the river is brilliant too. I understand that both are typically linked, but why choose to use a boy to embody both? I must say, it is an unusual choice. Of course, the boy does have eyes the same shade as the dragon's and the river's colouring; maybe you would like to explain? No doubt, everyone can learn form your drawing techniques too." Without waiting for Chihiro's consent, the sensei put the drawing up on the white board, and for once, Chihiro cursed the fact that their class was so small that everyone could see every detail on the board. Her cheeks were flushed and felt warm as everyone scrutinized the drawing. She could see Kohaku's jaw drop, masked as awe like the rest, but something about his expression told her that he recognized the boy just fine.


	4. Something about that picture

In that particular drawing, she had drawn the dragon very carefully, seeing as she had a lot of time since she did not have to research on any inspiration. Hence, every strand of the turquoise mane was life-like and wind swept. The dragon's expression was fierce, yet strangely endearing to her. The end of it seemed to blend into the graceful flow of a river behind it. Really, the dragon was a masterpiece and the focus in the drawing. But most of the eyes were drawn to the waif boy in the picture, for he was a strange one indeed.

He had shoulder-length forest green hair, and two eyes that were distinctly more cat-like dominated the sculpted face. His attire was unique indeed; he wore a white hakama, with slits to expose a blue undershirt and blue trousers. The attire was complete with a thin, purple sash that was wound around his slender waist. Around his slim ankles were leather straps that held the antique sandals to his feet. His dainty hands were stretched out, as though reaching out for someone, or pushing them outward. But the most intriguing thing about the picture was the fact that he bore a startling resemblance to the new student Kohaku, minus the old Heian costume. Underneath the picture was the caption; once, there was a river, which grew into a dragon, before becoming a boy, who would return to his river until there was nothing to return to anymore.

The teacher stared expectantly at Chihiro, as if expecting her to answer, and she could only stutter. "Umm, the boy is a spirit, whose river was destroyed, and worked in a bath house as an apprentice, hence the tunic and trousers?" Before she winced at the pathetic attempt. Clearly, the sensei was not impressed either, but did not give her woe over that. She did give Kohaku a look, before turning her attention to giving out the papers.

"Alright, now, today, I want you to learn how to draw a person's face. Last week, I asked each of you to draw a mythological feature as animals are easier to copy than the composition of a human face. But since Ogino-san as deigned to take a step further, I wish for you to observe the structure of the body. As you can see, the delicate bone structure very well done; the proportion is just right, and the features are fine. I must say she did a very good job." The sensei kept droning on about how the human face was formed, which was boring. A few girls shot her poisonous looks at the teacher's praise, which she could not bother to pay attention to. What she did pay attention to was the fact that _someone_ was shooting her a very weird look, before whispering quietly, "Can you meet me by my river after school?"


	5. Dead, I tell you, dead

It must be said that Chihiro was a good girl. That was a universally acknowledged truth. She was nice, quiet, friendly, if not all there. However, that certainly did not stop her from cursing out right at this new development. She really had to have the worst luck ever. Of all the times she wished anyone of them would come back, he came back the one time to see that drawing. She simply could not believe it. Even if he saw her admittedly not as nice drawings of Granny and the bathhouse, it would not have been so bad. Now, the accursed painting had revealed just how obsessed she was. Really, this was the perfect time for a hole to open up for. And that certainly was not a plea. She glared at the floor, before nodding quietly. After the period bell rang, he had rushed out, without even giving her a chance to speak. Sighing, she piled everything up and shoved it into her bag and stomping towards the door. Needless to say, Katharina had caught on to picture's meaning. "Eh, your dream boy finally turned up, and you have do is brood? Sad one, girl." She only snarled angrily, before stomping determinedly towards the damned door, which was further than ever, with Katharina's wheedling. "Just don't ask. Okay?" her frustration threatening to overwhelm her, she sealed her lips shut as they walked into Math.

They were learning quadratic equations today, which was both good and bad. It was good, because most of the period allowed her to think. It was bad, however, because it meant that when the sensei called her, she was not paying attention, and could only fumble for an answer while the class snickered, and she desperately ignored his gaze, which bored into her with startling intensity, and… no, she was not looking. After sitting down, with her cheeks stained red by embarrassment, she determinedly ignored the hateful remarks and stared at her worksheet. The equations made no sense to her, but more important was what to do later. She was just about doomed if she was going to be caught alone with him. Screw it, she was already dead. It would be so awkward after so many years. What would she say? _Oh hi, I remember you. How's life? Long time no see, eh? _That would go well indeed. Quicker than she anticipated, the damned bell rang, and she repeated the process of shoving her books in before walking sullenly to the next class. This was perplexing.

All too soon, the last bell of the day rang, and they were dismissed. Despite having spent the better part of the day ruminating on what the hell she was to do when she saw him, she was no closer to a conclusion. Definitely, option of ditching him and dashing home got more and more tempting as she considered the various possibilities, but it would never work. Sighing, she dragged all the notes and binders together before trudging to the river. Time to face the music.


End file.
